In the second quarter the company doubled the revenues seen in the previous quarter, and achieved its goals of generating positive EBITDA and stopping cash-burn in June

The cost savings achieved with the successful Contingency Plan allowed the Group to offset by 86% the drop in revenue compared to the first half of 2020, excluding capital gains and impairments

There are currently 253 hotels open, while the company maintains significant flexibility given uncertainty in the outlook for travel

The company sees signs of recovery in Spanish resort destinations in the third quarter, the most important of the year for the industry

The extension of teleworking in most companies in the face of the 5th wave and the absence of MICE business severely affect some urban hotels, especially in Spain and the rest of Europe

Following the resignation of the Director Mr. Juan Arena de la Mora, the Group incorporates a new independent external Director to its Board of Directors, Ms. Cristina Áldamiz-Echevarría González de Durana, increasing the percentage of female directors to 36%

Gabriel Escarrer declares that “The crisis has highlighted the resilience of the travel industry, especially leisure travel, and also Meliá's differential strengths as a leader in resort hotels and digital sales and marketing.
"

Gabriel Escarrer, Executive Vice President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International: “As I predicted at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the recovery will begin (at least in the resort segment) in the third quarter of this year, with the results of the first half of the year still very much affected by the pandemic. Our revenues doubled in the second quarter compared to the first, demonstrating the trend towards improvement, although they are still far from the levels seen in 2019, our last “normal" year (-73.6%). I am particularly pleased to announce that we have a liquidity position of €405M, supported by recent asset sales, and that we have achieved our objectives of generating positive EBITDA and positive net cash in June, excluding the capital gains obtained from the sales.

No one can deny the extremely strong impact the crisis has had on our business, nor the commitment to even greater rigour and efficiency it has imposed on us for the coming years. However, great companies are forged in times of great difficulty, and the crisis has also revealed the solid fundamentals on which the tourism industry is based, with the resilience of demand and its sensitivity to progress with vaccinations and improvements in epidemiological data reflected, for example, in the recovery in the number of passengers on flights in the United States, and to a lesser extent in Europe. It has also shown the differential strengths of our Group, and fundamentally our leadership in resort hotels, where the recovery is expected to be strong in the 2nd half of 2021, and our digital and distribution capacity, which gives us an extremely important competitive advantage in a turbulent environment for the industry."

Meliá Hotels International has presented results for the first half of 2021 that are still strongly affected by the pandemic and travel restrictions in different markets and destinations. Progress with vaccination programmes and the reduced severity of recent waves of the virus, however, have radically altered the scenario and point towards an incipient recovery, especially in the Caribbean, China and Mediterranean resort destinations. The results for the period remained negative (-€151.2 M), and the Group closed June with an EBITDA of -€62.5M excluding capital gains of €64M generated by asset sales. However, it did meet its objective of achieving positive EBITDA in June, and it even anticipated to June the objective of generating positive cash, too (which was forecasted for July).

In general, the hotel business continued to improve as restrictions began to ease over the quarter, in line with the previous quarters, and continued to be dominated by domestic travellers in every region. The Caribbean is the first destination to see growth in international visitors, especially Mexico, where the positive vaccination programme in the USA, its top market, has allowed a rapid recovery in demand. The Company remains concerned about the great impact that those urban hotels most dependent on the Corporate and MICE segment in Spain and Europe still have, whose crisis is undoubtedly more structural than in the vacation or hybrid segment (bleisure), in markets such as France ( with hotels such as the Meliá La Defense or Innside Charles de Gaulle in Paris), and Spain (in cities such as Córdoba, León or Bilbao, and destinations like Tenerife). The impact is also important in Vienna (Austria) and in some destinations in Germany such as Dusseldorf or Munich, which await a prompt resumption of the important trade fairs that usually take place in those cities in autumn.

Click here to view the full release.

About Melia Hotels International

Founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Meliá Hotels International has more than 400 hotels open or in the process of opening in more than 40 countries, and a portfolio of nine brands: Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ME by Meliá, The Meliá Collection, Paradisus by Meliá, Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ZEL, INNSiDE by Meliá, Sol by Meliá and Affiliated by Meliá. The Company is one of the world's leading hotel chains in the leisure segment and its experience in this area has allowed it to consolidate itself in the growing market of urban hotels inspired by leisure. Its commitment to responsible tourism has led it to be recognised as the most sustainable European hotel company according to S&P Global's Sustainability Yearbook 2024, as well as being a "Top Employer 2024" brand in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Germany, France and Vietnam. Meliá Hotels International is also part of the IBEX 35. For more information, please visit www.meliahotelsinternational.com